August 30^th 2020. The Twenty-second Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL: Matthew 16, 21-27

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini broadcast on Vatican Radio

 

Please check us out on Facebook

 

Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel

GOSPEL: Matthew 16, 21-27

Jesus began to make it clear to his disciples that he was destined to go to Jerusalem and suffer grievously at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, to be put to death and to be raised up on the third day. Then, taking him aside, Peter started to remonstrate with him. ‘Heaven preserve you, Lord’, he said ‘this must not happen to you’.

But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle in my path, because the way you think is not God’s way but man’s.’

Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it. What, then, will a man gain if he wins the whole world and ruins his life? Or what has a man to offer in exchange for his life?

‘For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and, when he does, he will reward each one according to his behaviour.’

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ

 

Summary . . . In Sunday’s Gospel, Peter remonstrates with Christ because he does not agree that the cross is necessary. Jesus tells Peter that he is not thinking according to God’s way, but according to man’s way. If we think according to God’s way, then we trust in him, no longer grounding ourselves on purely human considerations. Trustful acceptance of pain, suffering, and absurdity is the way we follow Christ. This is not accepted by a religious sentimentality dominant today! Our culture has made Christian spirituality a search for individual wellbeing and often cannot cope with pain and inconvenience. The cross, in fact, is considered incompatible with the consolations frequently sought in today’s approach to religion and spirituality. But the day I abandon myself to trust in the Father in the midst of suffering, in the absurd, in the midst of pain – that is the day in which Jesus becomes my true Lord! Once we accept our crosses and have the experience of loving unconditionally, by being good parents, faithful spouses and friends, then we discover what real freedom is, what real life is like. Authentic life, which is a gift from God, is delivered to us only through the cross. The cross or suffering are not ends in themselves, but when the cross becomes the occasion of abandonment into God’s arms, it leads us to be reborn with a new life, a life free from the ego, a life filled with the power of God.

 

How many lives do we actually have? Is seems to be one only, but it is actually two: the life our parents bestow on us, and the life God wishes to give us.

“Whoever wants to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it". But how many lives do we actually have? We might think it is one only, but it is actually two: the one we receive from our parents, and the one God wants to give us. The life God gives us, in order to be received, must supplant the first. In fact, in this Sunday's Gospel passage, two ways of thinking appear: "You do not think according to God’s way, but according to men’s!" There is a way of thinking that is securely grounded on what is human, logical, convenient, opportune and advantageous. This way of thinking often actually considers itself to be God’s own way of thinking. We see this in the manner in which Peter disputes Christ’s prediction of suffering, He does not do it in the name of the human but of the divine: “God forbid, Lord; this will never happen to you”.

 

If we think according to God’s way, then we abandon ourselves in trust to him, no longer grounding ourselves on purely human considerations. Trustful acceptance of pain, suffering, and absurdity is the way we follow Christ. In short, the moment in which I trust in the Father, accepting the cross, is the moment in which he becomes truly my Lord.

But the Lord Jesus reveals that his way of thinking is completely different. We see this precisely from the perspective of the cross. Jesus thinks "according to God’s way", and in this logic, the “disaster” of the cross actually becomes the fruitful path of the Father's work. Thinking according to God implies accepting that everything is in His hands. It acknowledges that basing our existence on purely human considerations is to miss the target of greatness. The cross is the instrument by which we follow Christ.  This is not accepted by a religious sentimentality dominant today, which has made Christian spirituality a search for individual wellbeing and which often cannot cope with pain and inconvenience, because they are considered incompatible with the consolations frequently sought in religion. But the day I abandon myself to trust in the Father in the midst of suffering, in the absurd, in pain – that is the day in which Jesus becomes my true Lord. If the Lord is not present in pain, then he is not present anywhere in my life, not even in pleasure.

 

Peter’s way of thinking is really a system of life: avoid problems and pain, seek comfort and convenience. The problem with such an approach is that it lays the foundations of a humanity that is alienated from real life; a humanity unable for the sacrifice of love because it is too preoccupied with its own comfort. But once we have the experience of loving unconditionally, then we discover what real freedom is, what real life is like

Peter’s way of thinking is really a system of life.  The basic approach is to avoid problems, inconveniences, and pain. The problem with such a system is that it lays the foundations of a humanity of alienated people, unable to confront the hard edges of reality, who become fugitive fathers, anxious mothers, self-centred spouses, superficial people. Such people do not learn to love because all they seek is comfort. This way of thinking can put up with sacrifice only in view of a gain, of an acquisition. Thinking “according to man’s way” means to absolutize what is human and render it inconsistent. That is because we need something that is greater than this life that calls us to go beyond ourselves. We all need to deny ourselves, because all of our lives we have been looking for someone who truly loves us without calculation, without asking for anything in return, without conditions. And once we have the experience of loving others like this, to fall in love like this, to be fathers or mothers, or brothers or friends or colleagues like this, then we know what freedom is, what real life is like.

 

Authentic life, which is a gift from God, is delivered to us only through the cross. The cross is not an end in itself, but when it becomes the occasion of abandonment into God’s arms, it leads us to be reborn with a new life, a life free from the ego, a life filled with the power of God.

We need to rediscover that this sort of life, which is a gift from God, is delivered to us precisely through the cross. But if the cross is lived only for itself, if suffering or penance become ends in themselves, then they only lead to destruction and despair. On the other hand, when the cross is accepted as an opportunity for trust and abandonment into God’s arms, it becomes the birth of the new creature, the beginning of a second life, a life free from one's ego, a life imbued with the power of God.